Know what your HR system has to do before the demos.

The employee record is the source of truth for every other system in the company. Position management, effective dating and self-service decide how much of HR's time goes to data entry.

1. Employee master recordA single record per person covering personal, job, compensation and organizational data, with effective-dated history.
2. Position and organization managementPositions, reporting lines and cost centers maintained separately from people, with vacancies and org charts generated from them.
3. Employee and manager self-serviceEmployees update personal data and view pay and documents; managers approve changes and see their teams, on web and mobile.
4. Onboarding and offboardingTask workflows for new hires and leavers across HR, IT and the manager, with forms and acknowledgements tracked.
5. Document managementEmployee documents stored on the record with retention rules, e-signature and controlled access.
6. Time off and absenceAccrual policies by group and country, requests and approvals, balances visible to employees and managers.
7. Global and multi-entity supportMultiple legal entities and countries with local fields, languages and compliance data in one system.

Payroll has to be right every time, and benefits enrollment is the moment most employees judge the HR system. Native or tightly integrated payroll decides how much reconciliation HR does each cycle.

1. Payroll processingGross-to-net calculation for your countries and pay groups, either native or through a certified integration, with pre-run audit reports.
2. Tax and statutory complianceTax tables, statutory filings and year-end forms maintained by the vendor for every jurisdiction you pay in.
3. Benefits administrationPlan setup, eligibility rules, open enrollment and life events with carrier connections for enrollment data.
4. Time and attendanceTime capture by clock, web or mobile, with schedules, overtime rules and approvals feeding payroll.
5. Compensation managementSalary structures, merit and bonus cycles with budgets, manager worksheets and approval routing.
6. Expense reimbursementEmployee expenses captured, approved and paid through payroll or the finance system.
7. Payroll reporting and general ledgerPayroll registers, cost allocation and a general-ledger posting file that matches your chart of accounts.

Hiring, reviews, goals and learning are where the system touches managers and candidates, not just HR. A good experience here is what makes the HR system part of how the company is run.

1. Recruiting and applicant trackingRequisitions, job postings, candidate pipeline, interview scheduling and offers, with a branded career site.
2. Performance reviewsConfigurable review cycles with self, manager and peer input, calibration and a history on the employee record.
3. Goals and objectivesIndividual and team goals aligned to company objectives, updated through the year and visible in reviews.
4. Learning managementCourse assignment, completion tracking and compliance training, native or through integration with the LMS in use.
5. Succession and career planningTalent profiles, readiness ratings and succession plans for key positions.
6. Engagement and feedbackPulse surveys and continuous feedback with results by team and trend over time.
7. Skills and competenciesA skills framework attached to positions and people, used in recruiting, development and succession.

Headcount, turnover, pay equity and compliance reporting are asked for constantly. Self-service reporting on live, permission-aware data keeps HR from becoming a report desk.

1. Standard HR reportsHeadcount, turnover, absence, compensation and diversity reports available as standard, filterable by organization and period.
2. Self-service report builderHR and managers build reports across modules without developer help, respecting the viewer's permissions.
3. DashboardsRole-based dashboards for executives, HR and managers, refreshed from live data.
4. Point-in-time and trend reportingAny report as of a past date, and trends over time, from the effective-dated record.
5. Compliance reportingStatutory and regulatory reports for your jurisdictions generated from the system.
6. Predictive and workforce analyticsAttrition risk, workforce planning and scenario modeling, with the method explained.
7. Data export and BI accessGoverned access for an external BI tool and scheduled exports of any report.

The HR system is the upstream source for identity, finance and dozens of other tools. Automated joiner, mover and leaver flows depend on integration that works without a ticket.

1. Documented APIsPublic REST or equivalent APIs covering the employee, job and organization objects, with versioning and sandbox access.
2. Identity provisioningAutomated account creation, changes and deactivation in the identity provider on hire, transfer and termination.
3. Finance and general ledger integrationCost centers, payroll postings and headcount budgets synchronized with the finance system.
4. Benefits carrier and payroll connectionsMaintained connections to benefits carriers and, where payroll is external, to the payroll provider.
5. Pre-built connector catalogA published catalog of maintained connectors for recruiting, learning, background check and productivity tools.
6. Event and webhook supportNotifications on record changes so downstream systems react without polling.
7. Data migration toolsTemplates and validation for loading employee history, balances and documents at go-live.

Employee data is the most sensitive data most companies hold. Access by role and organization, a full audit trail and privacy tooling are prerequisites, not options.

1. Role and organization-based accessPermissions by role scoped to organizations, locations or populations, down to the field.
2. Single sign-on and MFASSO through your identity provider and multi-factor authentication enforced for every user.
3. Audit trailA complete log of data and configuration changes with who, when and prior value, retained for the compliance period.
4. Privacy and data residencyData stored in stated regions, retention and erasure tools for leavers, and the vendor's certifications current and shared.
5. Business process configurationApproval workflows, notifications and business rules configured by HR administrators without code.
6. Sandbox environmentsTest environments refreshed from production for configuration, integration and release testing.
7. Data export and portabilityA complete export of your data in open formats at any time, including at contract end.